MOVIE REVIEW: Jenny Slate carries the 'Obvious Child'

Slate is in every scene, and without her the film would collapse from the weight of the contrived script.

By Dana BarbutoThe Patriot Ledger

Actress-comedienne Jenny Slate doesn’t stretch far to play stand-up comic Donna Stern in Gillian Robespierre’s indie flick “Obvious Child,” but that doesn’t stop her from flexing her ample acting muscles in portraying a pregnant 27-year-old Brooklynite with nowhere to turn.

Slate spends a chunk of the film telling raunchy vagina jokes and drunk-dialing the ex-boyfriend who just dumped her. In lesser hands, she’d be a cookie-cutter Lena Dunham character from “Girls,” complete with teeth stained purple from guzzling red wine. But Slate infuses pathos and charm into a character easily seen as an unlikable and whiny young woman. Slate vacillates smoothly between delivering diarrhea jokes and breaking down in the back of a taxi after the weight of her decision to abort finally hits her.

Slate is in every scene and without her Robespierre’s feature debut would collapse from the contrived script she wrote with Karen Maine. Donna’s experience is messy, but the way she bumps back into her baby daddy (a charming Jake Lacy) – first at the bookstore she works part-time and later at her mother’s apartment – is just too tidy to be taken seriously. Another script invention: the only date she can have the abortion is Valentine’s Day. Plus, there’s the by-the-numbers supporting cast that includes the rock solid best friend (Gaby Hoffman), the gay best friend (Gabe Liedman), the supportive dad (Richard Kind) and the nagging but earnest mom (Polly Draper).

“Obvious Child” – the title is taken from the Paul Simon song – does for abortion what “50/50” did for cancer. Robespierre and Slate take a hard, emotional experience and turn it into a comedy that’s both moving and funny. While abortion serves as the film’s catalyst, the movie neither mocks nor preaches nor gets political. Instead, it finds its poignance and humor in Donna’s reaction to playing “Russian Roulette” with her vagina and the situations that evolve from it. The film is an anomaly – a feel-good movie about a feel-bad subject.

Dana Barbuto may be reached at dbarbuto@ledger.com or follow her on Twitter @dbarbuto_Ledger.